(Un)Familiar Faces
by Author Incognito
Summary: Of all of the things that Peter had expected to happen to him since his experience in Germany, this was not one of them.


After the fiasco at Germany, Peter had expected many things to happen to him as a result. He had expected more people to know about Spider-Man. He had expected seeing reporters on the news, talking about the battle and speculating his identity.

Yes, he had expected a great variety of consequences that came as a result of fighting with the avengers - well, half of them, at least - however the thing that he currently gripped tightly in his hand was something that he most certainly did not expect. Not even in his wildest dreams could he have ever imagined something like this happening. Especially to him.

Peter walked as swiftly as he could through the crowded New York City Streets, so absorbed in his own thoughts that he didn't even notice that he had bumped into several different people. He kept his eyes focused on the large tower that loomed before him. Almost there, almost there. And soon he would be able to ask Mr. Stark exactly what was going on.

Peter walked into Stark Tower and headed straight toward the elevators. Thankfully the only other person in the main lobby was the secretary, and she merely ignored him. Probably because she thought that had called him in for some intern business.

Peter stepped into one of the elevators and pressed the button of the floor that he wanted to go to, taking several deep breaths as he did so. Perhaps he shouldn't even be bothering Mr. Stark with something like this. After all, Peter expected that he was a very, very busy man. But . . . he had to know why this had occurred. He had to know what he should do about it. But still . . . it was all very confusing.

In what seemed like no time at all, the elevator gave a small ding and he found himself on the avengers floor. At the moment Mr. Stark was nowhere in sight - but that didn't really matter. Not long after the incident at Germany Mr. Stark had programmed F.R.I.D.A.Y to respond to Peter if he ever happened to show up at the tower. So now whenever Peter needed help with his nighttime - and sometimes daytime - activities and Mr. Stark wasn't there all Peter had to do was notify F.R.I.D.A.Y to alert Mr. Stark of his presence.

"Good evening, Mr. Parker." The robotic female voice said, seemingly from out of nowhere. "Is there something that you need?"

"Yeah, um," Peter rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I kind of have this problem. Well it's not really a problem but . . . I need to know how it happened."

There was a long pause before F.R.I.D.A.Y answered him. "I will pass your message onto Mr. Stark.

"Thank you." Peter said.

Not long after he had talked to F.R.I.D.A.Y., Peter heard the sound of footsteps walking towards him. Huh. Mr. Stark must not have been that far away after all.

"Hey, Pete." Mr. Stark said, looking extremely worried. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah . . . um I mean no. You see Mr. Stark, I was out shopping with my aunt and . . . well I saw something." Peter said,

Mr. Stark pinched the bridge of his nose. "Okay first of all, you can just call me Tony. We've been over this several times before. Secondly what exactly did you see? Was it some sort of criminal that you need help taking down? Cause if it is I can get in one of my suits and come and help you." Mr. Sta- no, _Tony_ said.

"No." Peter assured him. Maybe this was mistake after all. "You see, um, I saw this." Peter held up the item in his hand.

Tony looked at him blankly. "An action figure."

"An action figure of me! As Spider-Man!" Peter cried out.

Tony stared at him for several moments. Then he burst out laughing.

"This isn't funny, Mr. Stark!" Peter exclaimed. Okay this was definitely a mistake.

It took several minutes before Tony was able to speak again. "Sorry, kid. It's just . . . you looked as though someone had kicked your puppy. And this is what you were so worried about? About the fact that there is apparently a toy of you now."

Peter shuffled his feet, feeling more embarrassed at time went on. "Well when you put it that way it sounds stupid . . . But I never agreed to this Mr. Stark! I mean you could have least told me that some random company was going to make toys of me!"

"Hey, whoa, whoa, kid." Tony said, looking extremely shocked. "I didn't have anything to do with this. Hell, I didn't even know about this."

Peter stared at him, trying to comprehend what he had just said. "You mean you didn't . . . ?" Tony shook his head. "Then how?" Peter had been so sure that Tony had had something to do with this. But now that it had turned out that he wasn't Peter became extremely confused.

"I think I know what happened. All of the avengers have figures of their own ,right?"

"Yeah . . . but what does that have to do with anything?" Peter questioned, startled at this apparent change in topic. Of course the avengers had action figures of their own. It was kind of hard not to go into a store and not see some sort of avengers merchandise sitting on the shelves.

"So they must have assumed that you were this new recruit for the avengers and went ahead and made you an action figure as well." Tony told him.

Peter looked at him in shock. "You mean . . . they think I'm an avenger?" Okay, he certainly did not expect this. Like, at all.

"Yeah, but you are not an avenger yet, so that's a problem. I will try to contact the toy companies and tell them to cancel any further productions of- are you okay?" Tony asked Peter, whose legs suddenly felt like they were made out of rubber.

"I'm not an avenger yet." Peter repeated to him.

Tony stared at him blankly, then he seemed to realize exactly what he had said. "Shit. Well, yeah, I mean I had planned on asking you to join the avengers. Once you were older, of course. I thought you already knew that?"

Peter shook his head, not trusting himself to speak for the fear that he would just end up screaming.

"Well, now you know. Is there anything else that you need?"

"N-no Mr. Stark. I'll just be on my way." Peter somehow managed to stutter out.

"All right." Tony said, smiling at him.

Peter walked away, trying to conceal his excitement. Apparently he wasn't doing as good of a job as he thought, as Tony called out after him, "You better let that out in here where the walls are soundproof."

Still, Peter was able to keep himself calm and quiet. That was until he got into the elevator. And once he was in there he let out a yell of pure delight.


End file.
